Modern and Contemporary Art of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia: A Comparison

This essay will address comparative perspectives on the modern and contemporary art histories of Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Parts of this comparison have been carried out earlier,Footnote1 but I will here include two references to recent bodies of work which assemble and analyse texts drawn from the different geographical and cultural regions of Northeast and Southeast Asia. This inquiry may enable us to question common approaches to this material and examine where these compilations to date differ between their respective regions or selectively omit certain issues. They also provide varying approaches, if not embedded cultural delineations, of the shift from ‘modern’ to ‘contemporary’ art in these regions.Footnote2 Such a comparison will be of an initial and exploratory nature in some areas that may be unfamiliar to standard art history as it is now evolving. The intent is to mark out new issues and indicate directions for future research beyond the present author.